14 months

We’ve had a really good month with Hannah.  Her reflux is under control with the medicine and she’s left her clinginess behind.  She’s finally gotten to where sometimes she pushes away from me holding her to get down on the ground and crawl off.  She used to always prefer being held. 

I love watching her explore!  She tears through our bathroom and kitchen cabinets, emptying the contents until she finds something she wants to play with.  We spend a lot of time straightening up behind her.  I’m told at childcare she empties the toy box everyday.  She went through a phase where she enjoying getting a Kleenex and tearing it in two and sharing the smaller piece.  She would do this over and over again, always evaluating the pieces to make sure she was keeping the larger of the two.  She’s also really enjoying nesting her stacking cups.  I love to watch her mind work as she goes through the trial and error process of making them fit.  When she accomplishes something, she’ll look up at us, grin, and clap her hands.  She’s so proud of herself!  She’s also mastered the art of dismounting furniture, feet first.  Perhaps the funniest thing she does it press the music button on her pony and start dancing.  It’s usually a head bob, but she’ll clap and twist if she’s in the mood.  She loves her new toys—her zoo, puzzles, legos, and doll stroller.  She’s finally gotten to a point where she’ll leave the doll in the stroller—she wasn’t so sure about the life-like doll at first.

Hannah does have two cute quirks.  One is that she doesn’t like to have her left sock on.  The right is fine, but she’ll frequently pull the left off and hand it to me.  The other is inevitably, after I finish cleaning her hands and face after her meal, she’ll grab one last bite and get her hands dirty again.  It’s her signature move.

My favorite memory from the month is when I was pretending to call her on her chatter phone from across the room.  Without missing a beat, she picks up a rattle, puts it to her ear and says “hi!”  Any electronic device is a phone to her.  She’ll hold it to her ear and say “hi,” but the rattle was rather creative.

Hannah’s babbling has now become words that only she understands.  She’ll point at something and use a single syllable with authority.  Although I’ve only detected a few consistent words (hi, dat = that, ga = dog, da-ee=daddy, mama, up, clock) she’s really into asking “was dis?” and “wassat?” (what’s this/that?)  She’ll point to random objects, curious to find out what they are called.  Frequently she’ll repeat the question.  We’ll talk about the object until I have nothing left to say.  I love the curiosity!

We’re down to feeding Hannah a bottle of milk when she wakes up and when she goes to bed at night for the purposes of getting her medicine in her.  The other times I’m trying to get her to use her sippy cup.  She’s made great progress with that, although she asks for help.

Hannah is a meat-eater, much to her daddy’s delight.  She’ll eat pretty much any meat we put in front of her.  She loves beef and deli turkey and ham.  She also loves dairy:  milk, yogurt and cheese.  Her vegetable of choice is Gerber carrots.  Yes, only the Gerber ones.  And her fruit of choice is banana.  She still eats her black beans like candy.  She and I split Kashi cereal and a banana in the morning.  I still feed her pureed fruits and veggies until I can find something else she’ll eat.  I frequently put the fruit and veggies on her tray, but she’ll hand them right back to me.  Eventually, they’ll make their way to the floor.

Hannah cut another tooth around Christmas, bringing the total up to 6.  She’s also thoroughly enjoying her new convertible car seat!

I’m frustrated that I cannot get good pictures of Hannah.  It’s the combination of Hannah wanting to get her hands on the camera, our camera not snapping quickly, and user error, I’m sure.  Here’s what we have for this month.  Hannah takes gift opening very seriously!

Early Christmas in Atlanta

Christmas Morning

The Richmond Girls

My parents, sisters, Uncle Jim, cousin Mark, and Aunt Karen were all in Orlando to celebrate Christmas!